


Roles and Responsibilites

by painteddragons



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Canon Era, Everyone Loves Merlin, Families of Choice, Friendship, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Lancelot is alive, Male Friendship, Male-Female Friendship, Oblivious Arthur, Overworked Merlin, arthur takes merlin for granted, bc he would not shut up if he were present, bc screw you, defensive knights, gwaine is on a mission, no one knows about magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-26
Updated: 2019-11-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:00:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21565747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/painteddragons/pseuds/painteddragons
Summary: Merlin was missing again, because he is a tavern-loving, work skipping waste of a manservant, Arthur thinks.Everyone disagrees.
Relationships: Gwen & Merlin (Merlin), Gwen/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Knights of the Round Table & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Knights of the Round Table & Merlin (Merlin), Merlin & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 804





	Roles and Responsibilites

Merlin really was lucky that Guinevere had not yet broken her habit of waking at dawn, otherwise, Arthur would have missed the afternoon council meeting as well as knights training that was meant to have taken place this morning. His morning was spent spewing all kinds of ridiculous theories and insults at the missing man while he and his wife got dressed (while Gwen got dressed and then helped Arthur into his clothes, smiling indulgently.)

“You really should go easier on Merlin, you know,” Gwen said once they had settled for breakfast.

“What do you mean?”

“He has a lot on his plate, Arthur and sometimes I think you hinder rather than help him.”

“Excuse you, it is his job to help me not the other way around!”

“Hmm…” Gwen was silent for a few moments, seeming to be calculating something in her head, nodding when she came to a satisfying conclusion. “I’ll be giving Merlin the day off tomorrow”

“You can’t do that!”

“Of course, I can; I’m the Queen and his best friend and therefore I decree he needs a rest from his work,”

“He’s not exactly working right now, is he?”

All he got from his wife in response was an exasperated look and he knew not to push the subject further. The rest of their meal was shared in a shallow but pleasant conversation. Just as he was leaving the room Guinevere called out from their chambers; “Arthur!”

Expecting a wish for good luck or a quick declaration of love and affection, he tilted his body towards his queen with adoration in his eyes, “Yes, my love?”

“Please try not to come back to our chambers too early tonight; I haven’t caught up with Merlin in a long time and so wine and a long chat is in desperate need, I don’t want you to show up and bully him into serving me.” With that, Gwen smiled angelically, and Arthur sighed. He could deny her nothing, not even being kicked out of his own room for his servant to gossip with the Queen.

“Right. Of course.”

When he finally made it down to the training yard, his idiot manservant was still nowhere to be found. He didn’t show up for breakfast, to help Arthur into his armour or to set up the dummies for sword practice. Honestly, he should have been fired his second day on the job but then Arthur would have to deal with dull George and his fascinating brass facts every day rather than the odd morning.

"He was in the tavern with you lot last night, wasn’t he?" Arthur addressed his closest and most loyal knights, only barely put out at not having been invited (not even by Leon??). It was all well and good that they got to go out, but some people are busy running a country and don’t have time to waste on frivolous camaraderie and tavern tales, so there.

The King could see on their faces that he was correct, and of course, he was because that’s always where Merlin seems to be if not attached to Arthur’s side. The faces of the knights spoke of slight regret but also trepidation at correcting their King, despite their years of friendship, and so it was Leon (the betrayer) who was the first to correct Arthur.

“Actually, my Lord, Merlin did not arrive at the tavern with us. If my memory serves me right, he showed up only an hour before closing and shared a meager pint before leaving once more.” At Leon’s interjection, the other knights began to impart their own recollections of the night before, Elyan closing the conversation firmly.

“That’s true sire, he didn’t stay long at all, there’s no way he’d have a hangover.”

“If that’s so then why did he not show up for work?” Arthur retorted.

“Do you think he’s okay? It’s not like him to skip,” Percival pondered, the others coming to a similar conclusion which left Arthur befuddled. Were they talking about the same Merlin? Merlin who disappeared for 3-day-long benders only to show up with a wide smile and no apologies?

“What do you mean? He always ditches his duties to go to the tavern?”

“Sire forgive me for correcting you, but Merlin takes his duty to you exceptionally seriously. He would never knowingly neglect them and never for something so frivolous as a hangover.” Arthur was ready to scoff in Lancelot’s face at the idea that Merlin was anything more than a simple servant, but the knight looked so earnest and sincere that the joke died on the way up to his mouth, and left the King gaping openly at the declaration of Merlin’s loyalty.

And god damn it Arthur couldn’t argue that Merlin was loyal above all else.

So, if he was not at the tavern… Arthur shook himself. Of course, the idiot was okay, he was Merlin. There was nothing to worry about.

“So why cannot he be found when I am in need of him? That is quite literally his only job.”

Elyan coughed something that sounded suspiciously like “physician’s apprentice,” attempting to muffle the sound but Arthur called him out on it. Elyan had blanked under pressure, but Percival was quick to fill in.

“Well, my Lord, it’s just that most would find the position of physician’s apprentice to be demanding enough already, not to mention that he is the sole apprentice of a court physician when there would usually be 4 or 5 people to share the load, with appointments and patients leading them all over the town,”

Before Arthur could manage to get a retort in, Elyan had found his voice again, this time with a slight frown marring his forehead.

“When we were younger, I heard from Gwen the number of extra duties she was given because she was the maid to the ward of the King, and that meant that she was seen as a more senior servant despite her age. Merlin being a servant to the King means he ranks more highly and is more likely to be given more responsibilities regarding the wellbeing of the servants and acting as their liaison to the nobility, dealing with the abuse and disregard on a daily basis.”

Arthur suddenly noticed that they had formed a semicircle around him, and he felt trapped by his own men. How could he not know how much work his own servant had? This was Merlin! He couldn’t hide anything from Arthur and yet he let Arthur live with the assumption that he was a simple lazy farm boy who wasted days in drink when in reality he had a bigger part of running his castle than Arthur had ever thought.

“How could he not have told me this?”

“Also, Sire,” Leon mused, much to Arthur’s dread. “You do give Merlin more tasks than is usually undertaken by a manservant.”

Oh, fantastic, now it’s his actions as well as his ignorance. “Such as?”

“Mucking your stables is reserved typically for stable boys, and quite frankly undermines Merlin’s high status amongst the servants if I am quite honest.”

Where Leon drifted off, Lancelot continued.

“However, you reaffirm his unusually high status by allowing him to read legislature and write speeches which is unheard of for anyone of lower birth, giving him the responsibility of an advisor with none of the credit nor reward. Most servants cannot read more than their name, let alone have a hand in writing their countries laws.”

“I…” Well, there was nothing he could really say to that. It is technically illegal to make Merlin do his paperwork but he’s so tired from attending council meetings … that Merlin also attends, standing the whole time, putting in much more effort than Arthur who sometimes dozes off.

“Is there anything in this bloody castle that Merlin doesn’t do?!”

“Just be glad Gwaine isn’t here or you’d be stuck in a 4-hour long lecture of how Merlin is the best and bravest and noblest of us all.” At that, all 4 of the knights began to laugh.

“Not that we all don’t believe that already of course, we just stick to the bullet points,” Percival pointed out.

“Yeah, Gwaine once spent an hour just talking about how Merlin is the greatest at packing the perfect food for hunts,” Elyan said, clutching at his stomach.

“He is rather good at that isn’t he?”

“Surely anyone can pack food?”

“Yes, but Merlin makes sure to charm the cook before we leave so our rations are always the freshest and most flavoursome.”

“And he slips in a few of our favourites every now and again,”

“Last week he got me an apple tart even though apple season doesn’t start for another 2 months!”

“He once was put in the stocks for stealing me a whole cinnamon stick even though they cost more than twice his salary!”

Merlin’s salary was half the price of a single stick of cinnamon? And Arthur knew for a fact that he sent half home for his mother as well. Finally, Arthur was brought to his senses and remembered that he was in fact, trying to train his knights upon whom the kingdom depended and not gossip about how busy and kindly his servant was, and so put the men to work.

But all day the thoughts nagged at his brain, becoming more potent the longer he went without seeing Merlin.

When it finally came to dinner time Arthur was so stressed about his friend being stressed that he was considering firing the man so that he could get some peace. His thoughts of how to break the news to the younger man were interrupted by his chamber doors opening with a thud, and in trod Merlin, covered in mud with leaves in his hair and his unflappable grin smeared across his face, like there was nothing at all wrong in the world.

“Hey, Arthur, sorry I’ve been away there was a thing in the lower town and – “

“Merlin, I’m giving you tomorrow off. Go get washed and have a rest before you collapse,” the words came out of Arthur’s mouth defying the logical speech his brain had composed about how Merlin had been relieved of his duties.

“Be here on time though the day after, would you?”

Both men seemed speechless at his words, but Merlin was faster to recover. “Was this your idea, Arthur?”

“Of course, it was! I’m capable of making my own decision, thank you very much.”

Merlin nodded, still with that insufferable smile in place.

“I’ll be sure to tell the Queen that it is very much appreciated.”

The doors had shut before the pillow could hit Merlin in his stupid happy face.

**Author's Note:**

> yes i did write gwaine vaguely out of a fic bc if he were present it would be 20x longer, wordier and praise heavy, and gwaine would likely have been banished again on merlin's behalf bc how dare arthur not appreciate how hard merlin works for him, and gwaine has none of the tact nor the respect of the other knights, he would straight up say arthur's a selfish twat to his face so for the purpose of the fic he is either in on a quest (with merlin?) or in bed with a hangover (with merlin ;) ) 
> 
> and there was no 'thing' in the town, it was probably something lifethreatening and magical and merlin was almost dead (again)


End file.
